The Story of the Week for April 20 to 24 is…
Duplicitous Haunts by Sarah Scott
Redemption is a favourite theme of mine, and it’s at the core of this great story.
JOCELYN MOORE: Payback Portrait
“Just one more, baby,” he pleaded. “I love how you look with your hair down.”
She was uneasy when her husband took revealing photographs of her vulnerability.
Still, deeply in love, she let him pose her body and snap away.
When their marriage disintegrated, he possessed the picture-perfect revenge tool.
Jocelyn Moore is a female western writer, living in a small, rural community, Pinedale, Wyoming (population 2,000). Though she mostly writes grants for non-profit organizations, she also writes short stories and poetry on nature, interactions between people, animals, and unrequited love. Jocelyn is the webmaster for the Writing Women of Zurich website.
KAREN WAYGOOD: Squirrels Day
Marvy the Mohair Squirrel asked me if yesterday was Squirrels Day. I explained it was Girls Day, which sounds a lot like Squirrels Day.
Marvy looked at me all sad-like, so I said we could create a Squirrels Day for Monkey Town’s squirrel friends.
Marvy said that would be fine.
Karen Waygood is a ruthless up-cycler, standup paddleboarder and former broadcast journalist. She grew up in Hawaii and now lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
VIRGINIO ROTA: A Day to Forget
I woke up at seven
My face already shaven
For breakfast coffee or tea
Ready to be me
Walking down the street
Nobody to meet
Doubtful like Hamlet
Hands in my pockets
How to be alone
Curiously I want to know
Now I’m getting home
To finish this sad show.
Virginio is an Italian student of English language. He likes writing stories in English and sometimes playing with rhymes.
PERRY McDAID: Control Freak
His hands shook, spilling vodka. Thumping came from the small hotel wardrobe.
He’d hoped to spend quality time in Berlin, but had caught her on the phone with her BFF. He examined her scrawled itinerary map again: “Shopping” and “Spree” were still predominant.
He suddenly reddened. “Oh… The River Spree.”
Irish writer Perry McDaid lives in Derry close to the Donegal hills. His diverse writing disciplines and genres appear in international multimedia, recently with entropy2; Amsterdam Quarterly; Flash Fiction Chronicles; Plotters Ink; Alfie Dog; and 50wordstories. He has one imaginary cat, Stinky, mostly nailed to a board above a ruined allegorical flower bed.
SARAH SCOTT: Duplicitous Haunts
Did I forget to tell you about the ghosts in my head? Tonight they found their way into our shared bed.
Let’s hide between the sheets, evading hushed confessions. They whisper of hooligan romps, barefoot shenanigans, and broken-hearted flaunts.
They remind me of me, before you saved my tangled soul.
Sarah Scott writes, works and lives in Canada and hence her hands are usually cold. She warms them by cuddling her husband, holding her children and petting her dog.
GESSY ALVAREZ: A Good Mother
A good mother shows no weakness.
When you left, a guiltless, cowering creature was born. Not one trace of my immigrant misery stained your new skin.
I heard you married a handyman and moved to Yonkers.
The pawnbroker gave me a Benjamin for the gold earrings I never gave you.
Gessy Alvarez is founding editor of the literary website Digging Through the Fat: ripping out the heart. Her prose has appeared in Entropy Magazine, Extract(s): Daily Dose of Lit, Literary Orphans, Pank, and other publications.
JOEY TO: Unforgiven
He sighed at the fiery shells of what used to be houses, shops, offices… Thick black smoke billowed. Charred bodies were scattered along the streets. It’s just like my city, he thought as scant sunbeams pierced the ashen haze.
But it was theirs.
He huffed, reloaded: the payback must continue.
Joey tries to write a little. You can find him and abuse him at joeytoey.com.
ALISON COOPER: Luna’s Moon
Nature is waging a clandestine war. The wolf-dog staggers stiffly to her feet, tap-taps a path across the darkened kitchen to the back door, pauses to sniff the chill night air.
She raises a white muzzle to the moon. Howls.
Cut it out, Luna!
She turns awkwardly, retreating to civilization.
Alison Cooper is a UK artist, residing in Los Angeles. She loves the challenge of the culling words to get to the core. Her first short story was recently published in Everyday Fiction.
MJ MARGGRAFF: Overview Effect
She’s practiced all the maneuvers and feels ready for everything. “Tower, ready for takeoff.”
“Cleared for takeoff.”
“First solo.”
“Roger.”
The controller glances at another: “Think she’ll be next?”
Wheels roll, wings rise, the sky opens, and heaven and earth release their graces.
Astonished, her late mother surrounds her, smiling.
MJ is an aviator, author, and speaker on ways risk and fear can work to our advantage to dream and explore. She is preparing for suborbital space flight and researching ways to improve astronauts’ long-term space missions.